Leadership Insights

Thinking maturely about the Christian faith

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Leadership Insights

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ January 5, 2003 ⋅ Post a comment

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS: SEPTEMBER 2000

I’ve just begun reading Carolyn Corbin’s book Great Leaders See The Future First ( Chicago:Dearborn, 2000, ISBN 0 7931 3685 7, RRP $44.00 Aus). She has some great insights. Here are two, which apply to any church or Christian organisation:

* Leaders determine whether an organisation succeeds or fails. (p.3) This may appear to be stating the blatantly obvious, but I suspect that many leaders fail to appreciate this truth. Whether we lead in an authoritarian and collabarative way is not the issue. The issue is that at the end of the day leadership or lack of it determines both the health and the success of the venture. Collabaration requires a great deal of effective leadership. It doesn’t just happen.

* Leadership is increasingly required throughout the organisation – not just at executive levels. (p.4) One of the myths of leadership is that if the leadership team has its act together all will go well. In the past people may have been happy to be told what to do and to do it. However, increasingly people at all levels of the organisation need input into the decision making process and control over the processes and outcomes. The plus here is that the more say people have in what happens the greater the degree of ownership and therefore the higher the chance of success. Corbin suggests that in churches leadership needs to be a nonhierarchical team mode: “This allows for the church to utilise a variety of different leadership styles as a team, where maximum ideas and contribution can be made. This sounds easier than it is and requires humility of spirit and cutting edge thinking.” (p.159)

Yours in His service Paul Arnott.

CAN WE AFFORD NOT TO PRAY? AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Franklin Graham once promised himself he would never become an evangelist. But he taught a clinic on the subject at Amsterdam 2000. Graham, 48, who reluctantly began his preaching career years ago, shared insights with more than 9,000 evangelists from all over the world. Graham delighted the crowd Aug. 3 with pointers from watching his father Billy and other evangelists, and related his own experiences since accepting God’s call.

…”There is a world that is not only thirsty for water, it is thirsty for the word of God,” Graham told the crowd. “We should take the opportunities God gives us to reach out to those in need.”…Evangelists must rely on the Bible, explain that sin separates people from God, and deliver a clear invitation for people to come forward and profess faith in Christ, Graham said. …Most evangelists are a little afraid when they invite people to profess faith in Christ, “and we should be,” Graham said. “We are on holy ground at that moment.”

…His first preaching experience was a disaster — and he decided never to preach again, he said. But the second time he “bathed the message in prayer” and that made all the difference because it allowed the Holy Spirit to direct the entire service, he said. “If you want to be a success you have to bathe everything in prayer.”

Lessons in Leadership from King Henry V What a battle 600 years ago can teach us today.

Christian leaders can learn much from one of the most amazing and lop-sided military victories of all time–the Battle of Agincourt. Though fought 585 years ago (October 25, 1415), the clash reverberates in Shakespeare’s famous Henry V (1599), in Laurence Olivier’s Academy-Award winner (1944), and in the brilliant film by Kenneth Branagh (1989). England’s King Henry brought to the field only 5,000 or 6,000 men, while the French force numbered 20,000-30,000. As Shakespeare’s soldier Exeter exclaimed in anguish, “There’s five to one; besides, they all are fresh.”

The odds become more stunning when you realize the French knights were better rested, better fed, better equipped, and healthier. Plus, they were fighting on their own territory. The night before the battle, the English camp lay stone quiet, fearful, with men kneeling and making their final confessions to the priests before they died. The French camp sounded like Mardi Gras as knights threw dice to see who would get which prisoners. The French even painted a cart on which to haul Henry V through the streets of Paris.Yet when the sun rose over the small French village of Agincourt, David rose up and slew Goliath. About 6,000 French lives and only 1,600 English were lost.

What could possibly explain this stunning outcome? And what can Agincourt teach you, as you and your church face battles of your own? It’s risky to compare military and nonmilitary situations, but consider these lessons:

1. BE OPEN TO NEW APPROACHES. The English brought a relatively new weapon in military history: trained longbowmen. Archers, with their steel-tipped arrows, could penetrate an oak door four inches thick, and trained bowmen were accurate up to 300 yards. While the traditional armored knights struggled to move (a helmet and breastplate could weigh 90 pounds), the longbowmen could scamper and reposition.

The French could have brought longbowmen, too, but they were still attached to the familiar crossbow, which required much cranking and was slow and inaccurate. The French knights looked down on their bowmen (as upstarts and unprofessional lowlifes) more than the English knights looked down on their new comrades. In your church, has an existing approach outlived its usefulness? What new approach does your church need? Is a new group of people essential to accomplishing this? How can you help the old-timers not look down on them?

2. WORK TOWARD UNITY. The French were divided between the Burgundians, the men from Orleans, and many other rival factions. Exacerbating these divisions, French lords were so eager to capture opposing nobles–a captured enemy nobleman could bring a huge ransom payment–that they packed themselves into the front lines.

Unfortunately, the battlefield lay between two woods only a half- mile apart in places. The French ranks became so densely packed that men could not raise their swords. The narrow ground churned up by the thousands of horses became mud ankle-deep. Many French knights fell and could not get up; they were then crushed and suffocated by other men and horses falling upon them. How can you reduce the tension between competing groups in the church? Are there ways each group could benefit and feel rewarded?

3. STAY CALM AMID CRISIS. Henry V spoke to the English troops in words they could understand. He didn’t fall into hysteria or panic, for he had an iron-clad confidence in God’s support of his cause (his claims to French land through the long-ago marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to the English king). Shortly before the battle, one of Henry’s commanders said in regret and fear, “If only we had some of the thousands of men in England who aren’t working today!”

Henry shot back: “Don’t you know that the Lord with these few can overthrow the pride of the French?” Surely Christian leaders are on a mission more important than any earthly monarch’s. Amid the difficulties you and your church face, can you step back and regain your confidence in God?

Price Pritchett and has just released a new “mini-books” called CARPE MANANA BEFORE TOMORROW SEIZES YOU that focuses on ten critical leadership practices for managing toward the future. As with all of his publications, Pritchett is a minimalist with words and manages to cut to the heart of the issue while weaving terrific insights from others into his own take on the idea. “Glue the good people to your organization” and “Free the body, capture the heart” are two of the better chapters. This is a useful publication for any organization and its leaders. A single copy is $9.95 and the price goes down with multiple copies. Call 800-992-5922 to order or visit http://www.pritchettnet.com and download a free sample from the book at the site. And by the way, what was the best thing before sliced bread?

“Used with permission of Leadership Network, 800-765-5323, http://www.leadnet.org”